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By Godwill Arthur-Mensah\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Accra, Dec.12, GNA \u2013 Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Monday commended the Audit Service and the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, for an excellent work done, so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Vice President noted that for the past 10 years since the Auditor-General started issuing reports of audited accounts of public sector institutions to Parliament, the recent one had been the best.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Audit Service is doing an excellent job. The Board, Management and Staff deserve commendation,\u201d Dr Bawumia added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vice President Bawumia gave the commendation at the Second Annual District Auditors\u2019 Conference in Accra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He reiterated the Government\u2019s resolve to provide the necessary logistical support to the Service in order to operate independently as required by the Constitution of Ghana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDisallowance and Surcharge \u2013 The Role of the District Auditor\u201d was the theme for the conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It provided a platform for the Service to discuss the mandate of the Auditor-General under Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution to disallow and surcharge public officials implicated in financial misappropriation and recover the money to the State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 2021 Auditor-General\u2019s Report to Parliament, it came to light that the State lost some GHS17.5 billion after the A-G audited the accounts of public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The irregularities were mainly in the form of cash, tax, payroll fraud, debts and loans, stores infraction, procurement and contracts abuse among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report compelled some civil society organisations and individuals to protest against the Auditor-General and demanded that he should surcharge those involved in financial malpractices to pay the lost amounts to the State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For government to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in the public sector, Vice President Bawumia said the Akufo-Addo Administration rolled out various digitisation initiatives at some public sector institutions and cited the online vehicle registration and licensing at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority as a classic example.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Public sector institutions that witnessed extensive digitisation of their operations included the Passport Office, Tema Port, National Health Insurance Authority, and Registrar General\u2019s Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The introduction of the Ghana.gov portal, which enabled individuals and corporate entities to access government services and make payments electronically, was another measure to check bribery and corruption, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The government, Vice President Bawumia said, had increased the budgetary allocations to some anti-corruption institutions including the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Parliament of Ghana, Economic Crime Office, Ghana Police Service, and the Office of the Special Prosecutor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those interventions, he said, were intended to boost the fight against corruption and enhance productivity in the public sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, called for closer collaboration between his office and the Auditor-General to recover financial losses suffered by the State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For instance his office has established a special team to coordinate and follow up with the Auditor-General\u2019s Office on relevant information towards recovering public funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an era of digital technology, Mr Dame urged the Audit Service to embrace digitisation across its district and regional offices to enhance operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He lauded the Service for initiating an \u201cAudit Implementation System\u201d- a digital platform that reduces human intervention in auditing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said when fully implemented, the system would facilitate the data handling of auditors and significantly improve service delivery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
GNA\u00a0<\/p>\n